Home Distiller

Morning; I'm in Nz and just about to start knocking up a pot still; so far I've managed it by myself but I can feel a few questions coming up...

I used to home brew so hopefully understand the first half of the process. I fancy making some economical drinkable spirit, no more than that for now, but I'm not very interested in making neutral then adding taste back in (at the moment) so it has to be a pot still for me. I'm fairly handy so I've a S/H copper water cylinder as raw materials and the 'Pint O' Shine' templates all cut out but I'm already tweaking them; it seems a shame not to use that nicely spun dome off the top of it for starters. I'll take a few pics as i go; if it's anything to look at at the end I'll post them. The first brew of UJSM is bubbling in the background, so I'd better get to it.

I've learnt an awful lot from HD already so thank you all for being so generous with your knowledge. I'll try to avoid truly stupid beginner Q's honest.

Hello and welcome to Home Distiller,

Glad to here you have a few runs under your belt, always something new to try or build,

We look forward to seeing you around

be safe, have fun, take notes, and remember, it's only alcahol, you can always make more

glad to see another kiwi around:)

Thanks Matey, Nice of you!

yeah g'day.
welcome to HD, always good to welcome a 'local'.

I'm so jealous of you in NZ.

You don't have to hide in the woods and work by moonlight to hide from the revenuers.....

Welcome aboard!!

I'm actually an English migrant, been here 6 years now and I was amazed when I first saw a pot still on open display in a home-brew shop window. After years of brewing beer and wine in England the chance to try distilling completely openly is irresistable. The only one who hasn't given permission is my wife, yet. She'll be convinced I'm going to drink myself to death. Personally I genuinely see it as an economy and a chance to try and create something classy and pleasing that is completely my own.

The copper cylinder is cut up and I'm already having trouble balancing 'functional' with 'pretty'. It looks like whenever someone goes down the all copper route they have this problem; you start to go for looks without good reason. Rivets seems a good example. If it's well soldered I reckon you shouldn't need them but they look very stylish. I'm tempted (and i realise it would help with the soldering if everything is rivetted up first.) . Yet I can also see that they're going to make knobs inside that make scouring the thing out much more difficult. Tricky!

And thanks again for the greeting!

Welcome to HD.... Sounds like your on the right track....

Good luck and be safe...

Dirge wrote:Morning; I'm in Nz and just about to start knocking up a pot still; so far I've managed it by myself but I can feel a few questions coming up...

I used to home brew so hopefully understand the first half of the process. I fancy making some economical drinkable spirit, no more than that for now, but I'm not very interested in making neutral then adding taste back in (at the moment) so it has to be a pot still for me. I'm fairly handy so I've a S/H copper water cylinder as raw materials and the 'Pint O' Shine' templates all cut out but I'm already tweaking them; it seems a shame not to use that nicely spun dome off the top of it for starters. I'll take a few pics as i go; if it's anything to look at at the end I'll post them. The first brew of UJSM is bubbling in the background, so I'd better get to it.

I've learnt an awful lot from HD already so thank you all for being so generous with your knowledge. I'll try to avoid truly stupid beginner Q's honest.

Welcome to HD, at one point I priced out copper and thought about building Pint O Shine's boiler as I think a copper boiler would be cool but gave it up as too costly and wanted to put my money into the column. Please document your steps and add pictures as you go.

Probably should do it in a new thread to keep the build clean and on track! Good Luck.

I priced copper and was nearly put off. So far $84 (Kiwi) for the tank and some time which seems good, and I will be able to get it out of the one I think. But I needed to use curved/shaped parts to do so and that has got me thinking about the design generally. It's not going to be a straight Pintoshine job any more. Still evolving it.

I will start a thread on it; might keep the copper enthusiasts amused as I go in small circles.